Aton M. Holzer's Online Review Report Card

Let me preface by saying that I am a very difficult patient - I can become quite nervous and short-tempered. Dr. Holzer was patient and caring. I went in for complications from a cyst on my arm and he treated the wound but I never felt rushed and he seemed genuinely concerned, even though this was a minor situation. I don't know the assistant's name, but she was very nice. I will return. The procedure was painless, too - and I am hypersensitive to pain.

Let me start off by saying that I'm one of those people that never leave comments. In fact, this is the first review I've ever written on anything and I'd like to first acknowledge that Crowell and Holzer are great doctors HOWEVER it makes you wonder what in the world are they thinking keeping the staff that they employ. I could write a novel on the multitude of bad experiences I've had with the managerial staff and doctor's "aids" but I'll just give you a few of the highlights. When you call the office (if you're not hung up on several times) the person most likely to answer your call will be a receptionist who has absolutely no other purpose there but to take a message that, might I add, will never be returned. Once you've finally made an appointment, you wait close to 30 - 45 minutes to be called into the examination room. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to a long waiting time to see a spectacular doctor however the “aids” that assist the doctor are so profoundly incompetent that, for me, not even these great doctors are worth the stress of dealing with these ladies. These women are the ones who should be carrying out the doctor's orders and clarifying any questions the patient might have after the doctor leaves yet it was obvious we were not on the same page about their job duties. At my visit, the doctor took some cultures that needed to be sent to a lab for testing ASAP as I just had a baby and needed to know if I had something contagious. Two weeks go by and no call. I called multiple times over 4 days and left numerous messages, none of which were returned. When I called back for the umpteenth time, I demanded that the receptionist leave me on hold till someone can speak with me about my results. Instead of putting me on with someone with knowledge about my results, they had the receptionist relay to me that it could take up to a month to get the results and will call me when they do. I asked if they actually looked at my chart and she confirmed they did. At my next follow-up, I was told the cultures accidentally sat on a desk over the weekend and the specimens were too old to test when they were finally received at the lab. Sooo they lied…. Needless to say, the doctor ordered cultures, again, and no joke, the doctor's “aid” forgot to even take them this time. Yes, I could've reminded her but my mind was already made up that I was never going back there. Oh ya, and when I painfully had to fork out my co-pay at the end of the visit, I had to wait at least 5 minutes until the lady at the billing desk decided to get off a personal call on her cell phone before she attended to me. Never ever again...

I would like to remember all the positives great Dr, staff very kind but the negatives rush to the front. My appointment was at 8:45 am I was prepared to spend a good part of the day waiting for pathology results, what I wasn't prepared for was a 9 hr day I was the last patient to leave the office and tried to exit through the hospital to wait for family to pick me up. Because doors were locked I had to walk from office building to main entrance of hospital. A short walk but having a total hip replacement 4 weeks earlier and the ordeal of the day it was no easy task..

When he does Moh's surgery, it's like assembly line medicine. There are 10 people in the office and he goes from one person to the next. There is little individualization as occurred with me - he took out a lot of tissue rather than a small amount and sending it to the lab to check for margins. I incurred a large, very ugly scar on my face. The nurse that works with him spent the whole time talking about the Star Wars movie.